A strategic framework addressing biomass utilization, forest restoration, and soil productivity is available.
The removal of forestry residues from public lands is crucial for reducing the risk of stand-replacing wildfires, restoring ecosystems to be more resilient from insect and disease outbreaks, and adapting to climate change. One bioproduct in particular, the biomass-derived high carbon charcoal know as “biochar”, has shown particular promise for offsetting fossil fuels, improving site conditions, and sequestering carbon. However, a variety of ecological, social, and economic impacts must be considered in order to evaluate alternative strategies for the utilization of biomass harvested from public lands. Read more...
Welcome to the Forest and Woodland Ecosystems (FWE) Program of the Rocky Mountain Research Station.
The Big Picture
Managers need science-based knowledge to predict how forests and woodlands will respond to a changing environment. The cumulative effects of past management and novel stresses are resulting in new management challenges such as dealing with large-scale wildfires, the widespread occurrence of insect epidemics, and the decline of aspen, to name just a few. The urbanization of forests and woodlands further exacerbates the urgency for understanding the consequences of these changes in land use and to identify socially acceptable solutions to emerging problems. In many cases, forest and woodland ecosystems in the interior West have been sufficiently altered to qualify as “novel systems” for which existing management guidelines may not be applicable.
What We Do
In response to the need for developing new approaches for managing ecosystems, scientists in the FWE program conduct research in the following areas:
- Spatial and temporal patterns of disturbance
- Managing complex landscapes in a changing environment
- Consequences of management activities
- Adaptive capacity of forests and woodlands
- Mitigation of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide
The Forest and Woodland Ecosystems Program is uniquely positioned to address these emerging issues because we have the capability to conduct long-term research covering a wide geographic area with world-class scientists.
See our Research page for more detail.
Who We Are
Our staff consists of both biological and physical scientists with outstanding professional and technical support. We work closely with university cooperators as well as other research agencies and organizations. FWE scientists provide (1) knowledge about basic ecological and biological processes, (2) models to predict changes in forest and woodland ecosystems at many scales of time and space, and (3) tools to transfer knowledge into scientifically sound management recommendations.